To bake or not to bake...

...that is the question!

A year or two ago, I toyed with the idea of making and decorating cakes to sell. So I made up a business on a whim and baked & sold cakes for three or four occasions. It was definitely a learning experience. I don't think business decisions should be made on a whim ;)

 I learned that this is a time consuming process! I also learned that unless I wanted to work for pennies, I needed to consider the cost of supplies when setting prices. And my factor in my time, unless I want to make $3 per hour. Which might not make my cakes as affordable as I'd hoped. I learned that I liked having my weekends free more than I liked earning a few bucks completely trashing my kitchen. I found out that I needed to pay attention to licensing and copyright laws, which meant that I couldn't legally sell a cake based on an existing character.

It wasn't long before I stopped making cakes for money. Except for my kids, and for my friends' baby showers and a few birthday parties. I got burnt out. Actually, it felt more like sugared out. I can still taste the sickly-sweet coating on my teeth from testing icing.

This past weekend, I made a batch of birthday cupcakes for my friend's son's 1st birthday. And I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed researching and sketching out different ways to make lion cake, and I enjoyed decorating. I was pleased with the fact that the whole process (including baking time and clean up!) only took 2 hours and 30 minutes. I made about $10/hour if you factor in the cost of supplies. And perhaps most importantly, I had fun with it.

Little birthday lions

So, I've been toying with the idea of making cakes now and then. For money. I like the idea of making cupcakes as they are easy, quick and cute. Cupcakes don't require specialty pans. I like the idea of matching decorations or going off a simple plan rather than trying to create some sort of character themed dessert that might infringe on copyright law. I like the idea of spending a few hours here and there working, rather than an entire weekend.

I'm trying to decide what to do next. I would greatly appreciate some input in this process too.

Is my work worth paying for?

How much would you pay for two dozen individually decorated cupcakes?

Would you prefer cupcakes or layered cakes?

How would licensing/copyright laws affect your decision to buy cakes?

Feel free to visit my Facebook page to see more samples of my work or to offer your input there: Smiley Cakes by Melissa Franzen.

Thank you! Below are some samples of recent work I've done...

Cupcakes for a Frozen party

For a friend's baby shower. Wish I had a pic of the inside- it was striped :)

Kittens for my niece's birthday

A special little cake for my niece

Cupcakes

Oreo cupcake

Baby shower cake

Ironing out some Issues

I'm about to drop some truth and share some previous blog entries that have gone unpublished for a long while. I hope that by doing so, I will help someone else.

Here it is. 

The past four years have been somewhat of a roller coaster for me. I have struggled with mood and energy issues. I have had periods of just not feeling like myself. First, it looked like anger, which I wrote about here and here. Then, it looked like anxiety, which I talked about here. It started to look like depression, which I thought I wrote about at one point, but perhaps not. The word irritability started popping up. Exhaustion came into play. I saw several different doctors. My OB-GYN, a counselor, a psychiatrist. I tried anti-depressants, vitamin supplements and hormone replacement therapy. When issues with energy level started plaguing me this summer, I finally made an appointment with a general practitioner to have a physical. I wanted to get to the bottom of the struggle and see what the heck was going on inside my body.

I hadn't seen a primary care physician since I was a teen (hence going to specialists instead) because I'd had a bad experience with a doctor when I was young and never found another one. But this new doctor came highly recommended by my family, so I decided to give him a try. I was impressed. The doctor listened carefully to all of my issues and history and then took 6 vials of blood to see what it would reveal.

A week later, I got a call and was told my iron was low and I needed to start taking iron supplements. So I did. I still felt like crap a few weeks later, so I called for a follow up appointment, wondering if I could have a yeast overgrowth, something I'd been Googling for a friend that seemed like it could fit my symptoms.  I complained to my doctor about my irritability and exhaustion and he told me right away that he knew what my problem was. He turned his computer screen to face me and pointed to where it said my iron level was 4. It was supposed to be 100. Oh. He explained that my red blood cells were struggling to get the oxygen they needed and I felt tired because my body was literally exhausted. Even rest wouldn't help because my body wasn't actually able to rest when it was supposed to. He told me it would take about 3 months for my iron stores to be built back up. I scheduled a follow up appointment for November and went home to wait. 

It's late September now. I'm feeling good some days and not so good others. There are days when I can get up and go, be on my feet and busy with the kids all day. There are days when I sleep for 10 hours and still wake up feeling tired. There are days when I look forward to to spending time socializing with friends and family. There are days when I want to be completely left alone to read or watch TV. 

It's hard. Some days I feel great and think that my iron must finally be where it needs to be. Other days, I lay in bed tired from doing nothing and wanting to be left alone. There are times when I am certain I must have some other underlying issue, and times when I think the iron is my only problem. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever consistently feel good again or if I am doomed to spend my life hunting down problems that no one can find answers to. 

It's a struggle. It's frustrating. But I've come to a new realization.

While I am waiting to find answers and to feel better, I need to keep living. And in order to do that happily, I need to give myself grace. I need to live in each day and accept that some days, I'm not going to feel well. Some days, I might sleep in. I might watch too much TV, or decide to stay home instead of going out with friends because that's what sounds and feels good to me. And that is okay. Exhaustion and irritability tend to come in waves, just as I suspect my iron levels go up and down since, y'know, I'm a woman, and our bodies do...y'know, womanly things every month. So if I need to take it easy, that is okay. Grace, grace, grace. I am only human.

It is hard to admit that.  I want to feel good all the time and have tons of energy and have the desire to get out and socialize and work out and stay active and take my kids to do awesome things. I wish I felt "on" all the time. But I simply don't, and perhaps I never will. That's something I'll have to learn to live with. I can start now by taking each day at a time and by allowing my activity level to reflect how I am feeling.

Some days the girls and I will go on big field trips, we'll go on hikes in the woods and we'll play outside. Other days, we'll stay in and paint at the kitchen table or read in the recliner. Maybe we'll all veg out and spend too much time in front of a screen. That's okay too. That's life. There will be ups and downs.

I'm doing the best job at living that I know how to do. And I'm not going to feel bad about it any more. 

If my life were a show, it would be cancelled

Fall is upon us and that comes my nearly debilitating ragweed allergy. It stinks. The weather is nice enough that I want to be outside in it, but unfortunately the air is filled with sneeze-inducing pollen that makes my eyes itch and my nose run. I spent a good portion of several days outside last week and was rewarded with gross cold symptoms that kept me (and Tim) up all night. I decided that my body needed a break, and I spent most of the weekend inside. Until I figure out a good way to treat my allergies, I am attempting to limit my time outside. Flonase, I'm counting on you!

I've been reading, ok? I've finished a book since my last blog post and have started another. There are many that I want to read but I am either waiting on them at the library or trying to decide how much of my birthday Amazon gift card I should put toward e-books. It's tricky. If I wait and get them from the library, they are free. But waiting sucks. So in the mean time...I've been watching lots of delicious TV.

What have I been watching, you ask? Apparently, the same show in different formats. As of right now, here are the shows I'm currently watching. I'm including links because you need to check them out.

1. Brooklyn Nine Nine
2. The Mindy Project
3. New Girl
4. The Big Bang Theory
5. Modern Family

Earlier, I asked my Facebook friends to share what shows they are looking forward to watching this fall, and I was shocked to find that everyone else is watching dramas while I am strictly watching comedies. I've been giving this a lot of thought while I wistfully stare outside and I discovered that I am watching different variations of the same premise.

All of the shows I like have a large cast of differing people working closely together. They're room mates, co-workers, friends or family members. All of these casts have at least one weirdo female that I find hilarious and/or relatable.  They all have a little romance thrown in there somewhere, which I like. But yeah, basically, it's the same show. Here's a bunch of wacky people living their lives with a side of hilarious antics.

I could totally have one of those shows. I'll be the hilarious lead female, and my friends and family can be part of the ensemble. Some of you are quirky enough to be on my show. Kayla, you're in for sure. We're kind of lacking in the romance department since most of my friends are married with kids. Maybe the show would be about my day to day life, dealings with the kids, homeschooling? I'm not sure how interesting that would be though. I think there'd have to be some kind of conflict to keep it interesting. I guess it could be a show about moms? And cats? Moms would watch that, but no one else would.  It could be funny...I think. Maybe I could throw in Matt and Cameron to add a different dynamic? I dunno.

I shared this idea with Tim and he told me that I could not portray myself because that would make it a reality show and reality shows suck. So which actress could be me? I've been watching a lot of SNL lately and I like Kate McKinnon. Maybe she'd be a good me.

As for the conflict...well, I guess I could see myself seeking out a purpose in life. (I blogged about that around this time last year! And it was even about TV!) I'm not sure what that would look like on TV. I kind of want to be a writer. But I'm 90% sure a show about a homeschooling mom aspiring to be a writer would be cancelled after one season.

Oh well, back to living vicariously through my shows.

A week in pictures

A trip to the zoo with friends

Teaching the cat something

Letter U and number 2

Lex made an abacus

Introducing the concept of multiplication

Demonstrating equal groups

In case you wanted to see EVERY piece in the box

Building at the library

A trip to the park with neighbor friends

Found a bee hive, yikes

Working hard or hardly working?

Lydia's favorite thing about gymnastics

Painting with berries

Taking a TV break

New baby cousins are the best!

It's her!

Can't you tell?